I can see Inter's point. By putting a stick in the derailleur you avoid the spring to get totally compressed, it's a smart solution. Another one is to fix it by screwing both of the limiting screws to a single cog. The solution of shortening the chain may be not totally efficient. At least in my case it was not like that when I, at the same time, broke my chain, my derailleur hanger and itself at the same time. The shortened chain moved from the middle cog upwards, so it broke again... That wasn't a good morning at all, was it?
Inter, those trials bikes are some of the weirdest bikes around: no seat tube, no seat post, no saddle. But if I had plenty of time and money, I'd give it a go, tho don't think I'd stand out at that. Nice pic Mackem, makes me want to go for a ride! If it's just a broken shift cable it probably makes more sense to jam a stick in the derailleur, or by messing with the limit screws! Hadn't thought of that. Once I was out in the mountains in Galicia and a guy broke his mech hanger and didn't have a spare, so his derailleur was hanging off the side of his bike. So another guy (who I was told was a bike mechanic) lent him a hand and removed his derailleur and shortened the chain as I described. As far as I know the first guy was able to get home on his 'single speed' (he turned around and went back). But I have to admit I've never tried this, kind of hope I never get a chance to. Did a jump last Sunday.
Not just one jump. Jumping at every opportunity and being in the air has become a habit of yours! According to Darwin´s Theory of Evolution you´re highly probable to develop wings. I hope you had fixed your roadie between jump and jump and get it ready for tomorrow´s ride! ;-)
Yesterday someone took this photo for us, after one of the most exhausting rides we´ve had into strong headwind and hot. :calimero
Hey, good ride yesterday, and as you see I successfully replaced the shift cable on my road bike. Hey, not exactly rocket science, is it? Especially compared to changing the fork seals and oil: far more complicated. I'm a little nervous because tomorrow I'm going to my first bike park: La Pinilla. So I'm wondering if I'm going to be thrilled, or feel let down. It'll be drastically different from our ride yesterday on road bikes, because there are ski lifts to get you back to the top. Can you believe that? We're used to pedaling hard up hills, but there it'll all be down hill. I'm told that your arms and chest get really tired tho. I'll have to start training by doing push ups, ha ha I'll be in full body armor, wish me luck!
Today I did some pretty hard core enduro/downhill riding in La Pinilla bike park. Actually I found it exhausting. You go all the way down rough trails with all kinds of turns, drop offs, trees, bumps, rocks, and roots. When you get to the bottom you go right back up on the ski lift and do it all over again (with a lot of variations) Besides really tiring my arms and chest, it also tired me mentally. Personally, I really need to concertrate to make sure I get it right and don't end up in a tree, ha ha. Another thing, the first time we went down slowly, but the next time a bit faster, until I was right up at my limit (mentally and physically). But, I'm sure I really improved. This was hard core training. Swim or drown! Unfortunately I actually had a little fall, but thanks to all my body armor, it's not too bad. Unfortunately it doesn't cover my entire body. For example, the back of my legs (my hanstrings) are exposed, and that's where I got a hard blow, probably from my saddle. At the time it was quite painful and meant the end of my ride for the day. Besides the pain, I was actually having dizzy spells, and nausea was the next step but didn't get there. Thankfully it's just a muscle injury: painful but not that serious: and it happened later on in the day, after lunch, so I'd been up nine times and had a good taste of things. By the way, the temperature was OK: much cooler than Madrid. There's a thermometer at the top of the ski lift which, when we started read 22º and reached a maximum of 26º I think. But as you go down the mountain it warms a bit.
:neutral: Sorry to hear of your fall, glad you aren't seriously hurt, and hope you are better today emotionally and physically! So La Pinilla has pushed you to your very limits and you´ve ended up grazing your posterior thigh as a ressult but given the fact you´re an enduro rider, we can say you passed the exam with flying colors. :clap I bear witness to the roughness of enduro, but man that´s not just enduro. You said it, hardcore enduro or wild downhill I dare to say. By reading your notes, I´m under the impression that some sections in La Pinilla are by far more demanding and technically challenging than those you are used to. Is La pinilla only for experienced bikers or novice mountain bikers can struggling with some less difficult trails planned for them over there?. I guess you couldn´t see all the variations, but knowing you, you could have managed to ride on the wildest and steepest part of the whole bike park!. :machineg: Didn´t see the beginners trails? ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVy_OeKOBio Pd.- I told you some time ago that covering your entire body would make you look like a Intel-Pentium processor ;-)
Hi! Actually we went down that 'beginner trail' (from the video) many times, but after such a rainy winter, it's changed a lot, not nearly as smooth as in the video, lots of rocks, ruts, roots (the three R's, ha ha). Also there are a lot of turnoffs on the trail, a lot of variation. So you turn onto another trail and it can get more technical. In any case, if it wasn't too difficult, then you had to go as fast as lightning. Those guys on downhill bikes with massive travel definitely had the upper hand; the bike park's really made for that. I actually found some of the more technical trails easier because we had to slow down, like on trials bikes. About my injury, it's a real pain in the ass, literally! ha ha. it hurts me to sit down, I'm hobbling around on crutches. Actually the last time I got a serious muscle contusion like this I was off my bike for six weeks. But also the last time, about a year ago, I foolishly kept on riding. This time it hurt so much that that was out of the question. I put ice on it and took an anti-inflamatory pill (Ibuprofeno), so I'm hoping recovery will be faster. In any case, since maybe you're interested in all this, I have more pics to share! Actually looking back at the ride via pics makes me want to go back, but maybe when there aren't so many people. I was clearly going slower than most of the riders, and I hate to slow them down and ruin their flow. I was told (by my fellow riders) that I did just that! So you're going along and then some guy's riding right behind you, breathing down your neck, so you pull over and let him by. BTW, it could be a 'her'. I saw a few girls doing this, and well! In any case, let's get back to the pics! Sometimes you come across drop-offs like this. I did this one because we stopped and thought about it and planned it out, otherwise I tended to steer around biggish ones like this.
There were some table top jumps, but seems I've moved away from that, never felt that confident. Another drop off. Sometimes you're going along and bang! There you are faced with a drop off. No time to stop so it's basically 'do or die'. That happened to me once or twice.
Spectacular pics, Wooow! and each photo breaks the preceding! :-D Yeah, considering how heavily it´s been raining for the last monhts, there have to have been frogs over there. The three r´s and a f combined sound like a little scaried to newbies to the park and these photos are confirmation for us of the work you had to do to get away with it relatively safe and sound... Man, who can understand enduro fever? It´s insane thinking of going back there when you´re in a recovery process right now ;-). As you see, I´m curious but not really interested in going to a bike park, I´d especially hate to have some faster riders on my back, just the kind of pressure that could make you fatal mistakes. Anyway I guess there is an exceptional and experienced medical service over there. :rabbit How does it work? You pay in advance for the whole stay no matter how many times you take the ski-lift?. I´m not familiar with the thing at all. :neutral: BTw, they guys from Mammoth have just realised a vid on how to replace/fit a brake/shift cable on a road bike. Some minor procedure differences with Mtb´s, and a trick of the trade cross of cables at 4.28" that I´ve never seen before...irat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swuQObrnRXw
Oh, I just changed the cable on my road bike. I'll have to check it out when I have a bit more time. Enduro fever? Well, it's really challenging and fun. You start getting into it and you discover you can do quite a lot. It's great for balance and coordination. It's obviously healthy too, especially when you pedal up. Granted, it's dangerous, but it does make you feel like you're really living life! About how La Pinilla works, you go there and get something called a forfait that cost 21 euros and which allows you to use the chair lift all day. You can also get insurance for 1.5 euros more, have no idea what it covers, but for that price I went for it, so the total price was 22.50. They do have some medical services there but it was closed when I fell. Didn't notice if it was open earlier. Here's a pic of me (and Chiki, Fer) on a chair lift. By the way, mine wasn't the only mishap that day. Fer wiped out on the table top jump. In spite of doing a face plant, he's still in one piece. He was saved by his body armor, which he'd just bought for the occasion.
So It works a lot like a ski resort. In fact, I think it is. Nice. Wow! In this last photo he is milliseconds from disaster after nose-diving too much, he is in his way to make what appears to be a real face plant in the ground... :shock: Miscalculations are part of the price of cycling ;-)
So why do people wipe out?.Obvously there are many reasons, like miscalculations, but I don't think that's where I went wrong this time. I spent a long time thinking, or even obsessing, about how to get through this downhill section with two drops offs, the second one particularly daunting. You can see it in the sequence of photos, which is just a fraction of a second before my crash.
Hey, things are going fine. So the part I was so worried about goes without a hitch. Absolutely perfect really. But then I ride right into the side of the hill on my right and (painfully) scrape along it (the photographer didn't get that). So the moral of the story is that is if you obsess about one thing, you might lose the big picture, or what comes up right after the obstacle. I got through the drop off perfectly, but was pointing in the wrong direction and rode right into a wall (you can see it in the pic). So there you have it, and now I'm grounded due to injuries. Oh well, I guess you live and learn.
They are such nice photos! We can perfectly see how much you enjoyed your day up there, can't we? I've been off the bike for 15 days, but at least I haven't been off the camera for so long, because I went to Colmenar de Oreja last sunday to cheer up my manañeros mates who participated in Madrid Xtrema. I leave you here the link just in case you want to enjoy them: https://plus.google.com/113515003260...ts/YDR43WRotLd
Wow Mario, you´re a great photographer too! Aren´t all those photos cool! Chain´s footage seems like too much going on and so many obstacles together to get everything all done -and not gone crazy thinking about all things as the perfectionist he is!- . Don´t get obssesed with this Chain, sometimes excitement about getting through a dh section, especially if you know you´re being photographed, makes you overlook details like that of the wall on the way out. You simply didn´t act as naturally as if you were unaware of the presence of the photographer. Besides, it´s a long curved line to handle with in your visual range, so that occasionally mis or non-calculations at all can happen. That´s all man. The bad thing comes a second after the last photo. After getting up you knew it would take some time to recover from your fall. I hope everything is going well, tho you have to give up your road bike ride with us. Without you, we´ll drastically drop the group´s average speed too quickly . Get well soon! Pd. Two in distress makes sorrow less. ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sFzheNFaBY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBNSe76h8D8
and eventually we both passed our English exams, hence i'll be able to come over more often. Chain darling love those pix, and Angel i miss you by my side, i'm eager to show what they call XC , wear body armor plz, coz things are getting rough I nearly forgot it David, i'm available for massaging your injured area gently, neat and clean am I .... DDDDD
